The Graduate Market in 2015 High Fliers Report

The Graduate Market in 2015Annual review of graduate vacancies & starting salaries at Britain’s leading employers

Produced by High Fliers ResearchProduced by High Fliers Research

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3

The Graduate Market in 2015

Page

Executive Summary 5

1. Introduction 7 Researching the Graduate Market About High Fliers Research The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

2. Graduate Vacancies 9 Job Vacancies for Graduates Graduates Recruited in 2014 Expected Graduate Vacancies in 2015 Type & Location of Graduate Vacancies in 2015 Changes to Graduate Vacancies 2005-2015

3. Graduate Starting Salaries 19 Starting Salaries for Graduates Graduate Salaries in 2015

4. Internships & Work Placements 23 Recruiting Graduates through Work Experience Programmes Availability of Work Experience in 2015

5. Graduate Recruitment in 2014-2015 26 Promoting Graduate Programmes Graduate Recruitment Challenges in 2014-2015 Graduate Recruitment Promotions in 2014-2015 Universities Targeted by Employers in 2014-2015 Graduate Applications Received in 2014-2015

Contents

New to graduate recruitment?

Get off to a flying start.For the last twenty years, High Fliers Research has conducted detailed research into the graduate recruitment market in the UK, providing the country’s leading employers with a unique insight into the attitudes and aspirations of final year university students.

Now, the company is delighted to offer professional training for new or recently-appointed graduate recruiters through intensive one-day courses, available monthly throughout the year at the High Fliers Research Centre in London. The courses have been designed to provide a highly practical insight into best-practice graduate recruitment and are ideal for those with up to 12 months experience of working in recruitment marketing or selection.

For more information about future training courses or to book a place, please call Carla Smith on 020 7428 9000 or email [email protected]

5


The Graduate Market in 2015 is a study of the latest graduate vacancies and starting salaries at the UK’s one hundred best-known and most successful employers, conducted by High Fliers Research during December 2014:

• The number of graduates hired by organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers rose by 7.9% in 2014, compared with recruitment in 2013, the largest annual rise in graduate recruitment for four years.

• Last-minute increases in employers’ recruitment targets and a sharp rise in the number of graduates turning down or reneging on job offers meant that more than 700 graduate positions were left unfilled last year.

• The UK’s leading employers plan to expand their graduate recruitment even further in 2015 with 8.1% more entry-level vacancies than last year, the third consecutive year that graduate vacancies have increased.

• This substantial increase in graduate vacancies for 2015 takes graduate recruitment beyond the pre-recession peak in the graduate job market in 2007 and means that there will be more opportunities for this summer’s university-leavers than at any time in the last decade.

• Employers in nine out of thirteen key industries and employment areas are expecting to take on more new graduates than in 2014.

• The largest growth in vacancies is expected in the public sector, accounting & professional services firms, banking & finance employers, retailers and the Armed Forces, which together intend to recruit over 1,200 extra graduates in 2015.

• The largest recruiters of graduates in 2015 will be Teach First (2,060 vacancies), PwC (1,570 vacancies) and Deloitte (1,100 vacancies).

• Recruiters have confirmed that 31% of this year’s entry-level positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations, either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work.

• Graduate starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers are expected to increase for the second year running in 2015, reaching a median of £30,000 for the first time.

• More than a quarter of top graduate programmes will pay new recruits more than £35,000 when they start work and four organisations are offering salaries in excess of £45,000 to this year’s graduates.

• The most generous salaries in 2015 are those on offer from investment banks (median of £45,000), law firms (median of £40,000), banking & finance firms (median of £36,500) and oil & energy companies (median of £32,500).

Foreword

Executive Summary


6

• The highest published graduate starting salaries for 2015 are at Aldi (£42,000) and the European Commission (£41,500).

• There is little evidence that graduate starting salaries are rising in reaction to the introduction of higher university tuition fees – most employers that have opted to increase their graduate pay in either 2014 or 2015 appear to have done so in order to compete effectively with other employers recruiting graduates.

• Over four-fifths of the UK’s leading graduate employers are offering paid work experience programmes for students and recent graduates during the 2014-2015 academic year – an unprecedented 13,049 paid work placements are available.

• Two-thirds of employers provide paid vacation internships for penultimate year students and over half offer industrial placements for undergraduates (typically lasting 6-12 months as part of a university degree course).

• Many more employers now also have work experience places for first year undergraduates – over a quarter of organisations offer paid internships and two-fifths of employers run introductory courses, open days and other taster experiences for first year students.

• Nearly half the recruiters who took part in the research repeated their warnings from previous years – that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.

• A quarter of the country’s leading employers have increased their graduate recruitment budgets for the 2014-2015 recruitment round.

• Employers have been actively marketing their 2015 graduate vacancies at an average of 19 UK universities, using a variety of local recruitment presentations, campus careers fairs, skills training events, promotions through university careers services, online advertising and social media.

• Graduate recruiters made more use of local careers fairs, recruitment presentations, skills training events, campus brand managers and social media, during this year’s recruitment campaigns – and did less advertising in local career guides and sector guides.

• The ten universities most-often targeted by Britain’s top graduate employers in 2014-2015 are Manchester, Nottingham, Warwick, Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Bristol, Imperial College London, University College London and Leeds.

• A third of employers said they had received more completed graduate job applications during the early part of the recruitment season than they had last year and a similar proportion believed the quality of applications had improved too.

• Together, the UK’s top employers have received 6% more graduate job applications so far, compared with the equivalent period in the 2013-2014 recruitment round.

7


Researching the Graduate MarketWelcome to The Graduate Market in 2015, the annual review of graduate vacancies and starting salaries at Britain’s top employers, produced by High Fliers Research.

This research, conducted during December 2014, examines how many graduates the leading employers recruited in 2014 and assesses their latest recruitment targets for 2015.

It also analyses the starting salaries on offer to new graduates, the number of paid work experience places that are available to students & recent graduates, and reviews the promotions being used by employers to publicise their graduate vacancies during the 2014-2015 recruitment season.

This is the tenth year that High Fliers Research has produced its independent assessment of the graduate job market. The research is based on a study of graduate recruitment at the organisations named as The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2014 in a poll of 18,336 final year students to find “Which employer offers the best opportunities for graduates”.

About High Fliers ResearchEstablished in 1994, High Fliers Research is an independent market research company which specialises in student and graduate research. It has worked with more than 140 leading employers to measure the impact of their graduate recruitment campaigns on campus and help them understand their position in the graduate job market.

The company is best-known for The UK Graduate Careers Survey – its comprehensive annual study of over 18,000 final year undergraduates at thirty leading universities – which is supported and funded by up to 70 national & international employers each year.

The survey gives employers a unique insight into the career expectations and aspirations of final year students – just weeks before they graduate – and provides a definitive record of their search for a graduate job.

For the last decade, High Fliers Research has also conducted regular surveys of Britain’s top employers to research current graduate vacancy levels, starting salaries and benchmark the latest graduate recruitment practices. The company hosts The National Graduate Recruitment Conference, a one-day event held exclusively for graduate recruiters in September each year, as well as providing monthly professional training courses for new recruiters.

Internationally, High Fliers Research works closely with the Australian Association of Graduate Employers, the South African Graduate Recruitment Association and the New Zealand Association Graduate Recruitment to carry out their annual surveys of graduate employers, new recruits and young managers.

Chapter 1

Introduction


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AccentureAirbusAldiAllen & OveryAppleArcadia GroupArmyArupAsdaAtkinsBAE SystemsBain & CompanyBaker & McKenzieBank of America Merrill LynchBarclaysBBCBlackRockBloombergBootsBoston Consulting GroupBPBritish AirwaysBritish SugarBTCancer Research UKCentricaChannel FourCitiCivil ServiceClifford ChanceCredit SuisseDeloitteDeutsche Bank

Department for International DevelopmentDiageoDLA PiperDysonE.ONEDF EnergyEuropean CommissionExxonMobilEYForeign & Commonwealth OfficeFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerFrontlineGEGlaxoSmithKlineGoldman SachsGoogleGrant ThorntonHerbert Smith FreehillsHogan LovellsHSBCIBMJ.P. MorganJaguar Land RoverJohn Lewis PartnershipKPMGL’OréalLidlLinklatersLloyds Banking GroupLloyd’sM&SMarsMcDonald’s

McKinsey & CompanyMI5 – The Security ServiceMicrosoftMondelēz InternationalMorgan StanleyMorrisonsNestléNewton EuropeNGDP for Local GovernmentNHSNorton Rose FulbrightOxfamPenguin Random HousePoliceProcter & GamblePwCRAFRed BullRolls-RoyceRoyal Bank of Scotland GroupRoyal NavySainsbury’sSantanderSavillsShellSiemensSkySlaughter and MayTeach FirstTescoTransport for LondonUBSUnileverWPP

The Times Top 100 Graduate EmployersAs part of the campus research for The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2014, 18,336 final year students from thirty leading universities were asked the unprompted question “Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?”.

Between them, finalists named over 1,200 different organisations during the survey – the one hundred employers with the most student votes formed The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2014.

It is these employers that are included in the research for The Graduate Market in 2015 report:

9


Job Vacancies for GraduatesThe first part of the research examines the number of graduate vacancies available at the UK’s leading employers in 2015, compared with recruitment in 2014. Graduate vacancies for 2015 are typically positions with an autumn 2015 start date, promoted during the current 2014-2015 recruitment season.

A year ago, The Graduate Market in 2014 reported that following a modest increase in the number of graduates hired in 2013, the country’s top employers were planning to expand their graduate recruitment substantially in 2014. Vacancies for university-leavers were expected to rise by at least 8%, taking graduate recruitment to its highest level since 2007.

The latest research shows the outlook for 2015 continues to be very upbeat with the UK’s leading employers expecting to hire 8.1% more graduates than were recruited during 2014, making this the third year running that graduate vacancies have increased (see Chart 2.1).

Chapter 2

Graduate Vacancies

Chart 2.1 How Employers’ Vacancies for Graduates Changed from 2005 to 2015

Percentage change in graduate vacancies on the previous year

1050-10-20

2007 Up 10.1%

2006 Up 10.8%

2005 Up 10.9%

20

2008 Down 6.7%

2009 Down 17.8%

-5-15 15

2010 Up 12.6%

2011 Up 2.8%

2015 Up 8.1%

2012 Down 0.8%

2013 Up 2.5%

2014 Up 7.9%

Source - The Graduate Market in 2015


1010

Graduates Recruited in 2014The last six years have certainly been a turbulent time for the graduate job market. Although nearly a quarter of graduate vacancies at the UK’s best-known employers were cut at the start of the recession in 2008 and 2009, employment prospects for university-leavers improved considerably over the following two years, but dipped again during the 2012 recruitment season before recovering once more in 2013.

At the start of the 2013-2014 graduate recruitment season in September 2013, it was clear that a much more buoyant mood had returned, with the leading employers preparing to hire 1,000 additional new recruits in 2014, compared with their graduate recruitment in 2013. As the recruiting round unfolded, this confidence grew and employers’ graduate recruitment targets increased further during the season. In January 2014, recruiters were expecting the annual rise in recruitment would be at least 8% and by July 2014, the final estimate put the growth in graduate jobs at more than 12% (see Chart 2.2).

This is the first time since before the recession that recruitment targets had risen at each stage of the recruitment season and the considerable optimism amongst employers meant that by the summer of 2014, recruiters in eleven out of thirteen key industries expected that their graduate intake would be higher than in 2013.

By autumn 2014, a total of 18,129 graduates started work with the organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers – an annual increase of more than 1,300 graduates, compared with recruitment in 2013 (see Table 2.4). This is a lower figure than had been predicted in July 2014 and it is clear that in several sectors vacancies were left unfilled, either because graduates turned down job offers or reneged on offers they had accepted, or because the late change in recruitment targets had made it impossible to source additional graduates in time. Some recruiters also commented that increased competition from other recruiters and a lack of quality applications had made it difficult to fill all their vacancies.

Almost three-quarters of the unfilled graduate vacancies were at accounting & professional services firms, in the public sector and the Armed Forces. Had all the available vacancies in 2014 been filled successfully, the annual increase in recruitment would have been 12.3%.

Chart 2.2 How Graduate Recruitment Targets Changed during 2014

Graduate vacancies at Britain’s top employers in 2014

20,00010,0000


Recruitment Targets for 2014 Revised in July 2014 18,753 graduate vacancies

Recruitment Targets for 2014 Published in September 2013 17,901 graduate vacancies

Recruitment Targets for 2014 Revised in January 2014 18,264 graduate vacancies

15,0005,000

Actual Graduates Recruited in 2014 Confirmed in December 2014 18,129 graduates recruited 743 unfilled

vacancies

11


Chart 2.3 How Employers’ Graduate Vacancies Changed in 2014, compared with 2013

Percentage of top graduate employers

504020100


Recruited the same number of graduates as in 2013 14%

30

Recruited 50+ graduates more than in 2013 15%

Recruited 1-50 graduates more than in 2013 30%

Recruited 50+ graduates fewer than in 2013 6%

Table 2.4 Analysis of Graduate Vacancies in 2014, by Industry or Business Sector

Industry or Business Sector

Accounting & professional services

Armed Forces

Banking & finance

Consulting

Consumer goods

Engineering & industrial

Investment banking

IT & telecommunications

Law

Media

Oil & energy

Public sector

Retailing

ALL SECTORS


Recruitment target for 2014, as published in

Sept 2013

4,000

1,050

840

600

423

1,575

2,265

600

714

368

540

3,280

1,520

17,901

% change from

recruitment in 2013

p 16.3%

p 6.0%

p 3.3%

p 28.9%

p 11.6%

p 20.8%

q 3.6%

p 13.7%

q 4.1%

p 43.9%

q 20.8%

p 13.1%

q 13.3%

p 7.9%

Vacancies added (cut),

compared with 2013

586

62

27

140

40

297

(80)

102

(28)

116

(115)

409

(187)

1,327

Actual graduates

recruited by Dec 2014

4,174

1,094

849

625

386

1,726

2,122

846

659

380

437

3,537

1,224

18,129

Recruitment target for 2014,

as revised in Jan 2014

3,848

1,036

955

590

372

1,591

2,383

760

709

247

526

3,508

1,599

18,264


as revised in July 2014

4,442

1,157

918

617

351

1,650

2,148

830

714

338

505

3,415

1,516

18,753

Recruited 1-50 graduates fewer than in 2013 35%


12

Expected Graduate Vacancies in 2015After the significant increase in graduate vacancies in 2014, it is particularly encouraging that the organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers are now aiming to expand their graduate recruitment programmes even further in 2015.

Overall, graduate vacancies are expected to increase by 8.1% this year as more than half the leading employers are planning to recruit more graduates, with four organisations confident that they’ll be hiring at least a hundred extra graduates during 2015. A third of employers plan to recruit similar numbers of graduates to their 2014 intake, whilst a fifth have fewer entry-level vacancies this year. The median number of vacancies for at the top employers in 2015 is 100 graduates but seven of the largest employers are preparing to hire more than 500 university-leavers in the coming months (see Chart 2.6).

The largest recruiters of graduates in 2015 are expected to be the accounting & professional services firms, public sector employers, investment banks and engineering & industrial firms, who have combined recruitment targets of over 10,000 graduate positions (see Chart 2.5).

When compared with the final recruitment figures for 2014, vacancies for graduates are set to increase in nine of the thirteen main employment areas (see Table 2.7). The biggest growth is at public sector organisations, accounting & professional services firms, banking & finance employers, high street retailers and the Armed Forces, which together expect to have over 1,200 extra graduate roles in 2015. Vacancy numbers are unchanged in the IT & telecommunications sector but are likely to be lower this year at media organisations, oil & energy companies and consulting firms.

Whilst this data confirms there will be another welcome increase in the number of new graduate jobs available at the UK’s top employers in 2015, recruiters warn that 31% of all vacancies are expected to be filled by undergraduates who have had previous work experience with their organisations, such as paid internships or industrial placements.

Chart 2.5 Industries or Business Sectors with the most Graduate Vacancies in 2015

Accounting & professional services 4,624 vacancies


Engineering & industrial 1,708 vacancies

Public sector 3,771 vacancies

Retail 1,314 vacancies

Banking & finance 1,319 vacancies

Investment banking 1,820 vacancies

Armed Forces 1,246 vacancies

Number of vacancies at top graduate employers

0 2,000 5,0001,000 3,000 4,000

13


Table 2.7 Analysis of Graduate Vacancies in 2015, by Industry or Business Sector



Armed Forces

Banking & finance

Consulting

Consumer goods


Investment banking


Law

Media

Oil & energy

Public sector

Retailing

ALL SECTORS


Recruitment target for 2015, as published in

Sept 2014

4,500

1,300

1,330

570

375

1,675

1,895

786

750

504

535

3,852

1,383

19,673

% change from

recruitment in 2014

p 10.8%

p 13.9%

p 20.8%

q 2.4%

p 10.3%

p 5.0%

p 2.3%

NO CHANGE

p 10.6%

q 14.5%

q 11.7%

p 13.7%

p 13.9%

p 8.1%


as revised in Dec 2014

4,624

1,246

1,319

610

396

1,708

1,820

845

780

661

394

3,771

1,314

19,701

Vacancies added (cut),

compared with 2014

450

152

227

(15)

37

82

41

-

75

(112)

(52)

454

160

1,479

% of vacancies likely to be filled by graduates

who had already worked for employer

29

-

61

33

54

35

74

25

52

19

55

8

23

31

Chart 2.6 Graduate Vacancies at the UK’s Top Employers in 2015


Recruiting 101-250 graduates 19%

Recruiting 500+ graduates 7%




504020100 30


No graduate vacancies in 2015 3%

Median - 100 vacancies


14

Chart 2.8 Location of Graduate Vacancies at leading UK Employers in 2015

London 83%


Scotland 46%

Northern Ireland 25%

North West 50%

South West 47%

South East 46%

Location & Type of Graduate Vacancies in 2015Examining where in the UK employers expect to recruit graduates for shows that more than four-fifths of organisations are offering vacancies in London for 2015 and almost half plan to hire new recruits for positions in the south east of England (see Chart 2.8). Whilst this doesn’t necessarily mean that the majority of graduate vacancies are in or around the M25, it does confirm that most major employers have opportunities within the region.

The north west of England, the Midlands and the south west have the next highest numbers of employers recruiting graduates into them, followed by the north east of England and Yorkshire. Of all the English regions, East Anglia is the least likely to yield graduate vacancies – 40% of employers have opportunities there in 2015.

A total of 46% and 39% of graduate employers have entry-level jobs on offer in Scotland and Wales respectively and a quarter are recruiting for opportunities in Northern Ireland.

The Graduate Market in 2015 also records the type of job functions that employers are hoping to recruit graduates into this year. The most frequent requirement is for IT and finance vacancies – around half of employers offer roles in these areas, irrespective of their organisation’s main purpose (see Chart 2.9). Over a third of employers have vacancies in

North East 44%

Yorkshire 43%

East Anglia 40%

Wales 39%

The Midlands 50%


1008040200 60

15


Chart 2.9 Type of Graduate Vacancies at leading UK Employers in 2015

IT 53%


Marketing 33%

Media 9%

Finance 48%

Human resources 37%

General management 36%

Law 17%

Transport & logistics 21%

Consulting 19%

Purchasing 19%

Investment banking 12%

Retailing 14%

Research & development 24%

Engineering 30%

Sales 27%

human resources or general management, a third are recruiting for marketing or engineering positions and approximately a quarter are looking for graduates to work in research & development or sales.

These results underline the obvious disparity between what organisations are perceived to do and their potential recruitment needs. For example, the number of vacancies at so-called ‘IT companies’ is relatively small and yet the volume of graduates needed to work in IT functions at a wide range of employers in other business sectors is substantial.

Property 10%


1008040200 60

Accountancy 19%


16

Changes to Graduate Vacancies 2005-2015The period from 2005 to 2007 proved to be something of a boom in graduate recruitment – the number of vacancies for university-leavers at the UK’s leading graduate employers increased by more than 10% annually and there were more opportunities for graduates in each of the fourteen key industries and business sectors.

But the onset of the global financial crisis and the recession that followed in the UK had a profound effect on the graduate market and graduate vacancies at organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers fell by an unprecedented 23.3% in 2008 and 2009. Entry-level positions were cut in thirteen of the fourteen most sought-after employment sectors and, in all, some fifty-nine employers saw their graduate recruitment decline.

The worst of the cuts took place at the investment banks, IT & telecoms firms, chemical & pharmaceuticals companies and within the media, where vacancies halved during the course of the two recruitment rounds. Just one employment area, the public sector, managed to increase its graduate recruitment over the period, stepping up vacancies by 45% during this two-year period, helped by the rapid expansion of the Teach First scheme.

It is interesting to benchmark how graduate vacancies have changed over the last ten years (see Chart 2.10). This indexing of vacancies shows that during the two recruitment seasons between 2005 and 2007, opportunities for graduates grew by almost a quarter at Britain’s top employers, but that all of this growth and more was wiped out in the following two years, and by 2009 graduate recruitment had returned to a similar level to that recorded in 2004.

Twelve months later, the graduate job market bounced back convincingly and vacancies grew by 12.6% in 2010, with a further increase of 2.8% in 2011. The recovery stalled again in 2012 but recruitment increased once more in 2013, taking vacancies to their highest level for five years. The significant 7.9% rise in graduate recruitment recorded in 2014 and the


Chart 2.10 Indexing Graduate Vacancies at the UK’s Top Employers 2005 to 2015

2005

100

0

50

100

150

2006

111

2007

122

2008

114

2009

94

2010

105

2011

108

2015

128

Gra

duat

e va

canc

ies,

inde

xed

to re

crui

tmen

t in

2005

2012

107

2013

110

2014

119


17


further substantial increase of 8.1% expected this year means that there will be 4.9% more graduate vacancies available in 2015 compared with 2007, the pre-recession peak in graduate recruitment, and 36.2% more opportunities than in 2009, the low-point in the graduate job market during the economic crisis.

Comparing this year’s graduate recruitment targets in individual industries and business sectors with the volume of new recruits hired in 2005 shows that in nine key employment areas, graduate vacancies are now higher than they were ten years ago (see Chart 2.11). The number of entry-level positions available for graduates in IT & telecommunications and in the public sector has more than doubled over the last ten years and training places at accountancy & professional services firms have increased by two-thirds.

There are more graduate jobs too at the leading retailers, consumer goods companies, consulting firms, media companies, engineering & industrial companies and in banking & finance. However, graduate recruitment at the largest oil & energy groups, the top law firms, City investment banks and the Armed Forces remains lower than it was in 2005.

Chart 2.11 How Graduate Vacancies Changed 2005 to 2015, by Sector or Industry

Percentage change in graduate vacancies between 2005 and 2015

175250-25

IT & telecommunications Up 160%


125-75-100

Public sector Up 130%

Accounting & professional services Up 68%

75-50

Banking & finance Up 10%

Retail Up 41%

Consumer goods Up 37%

Consulting Up 31%

10050 150

Engineering & industrial Up 21%

Media Up 26%

Oil & energyDown 13%

LawDown 16%

Investment bankingDown 21%

Armed ForcesDown 27%


18

Summary• The number of graduates hired by organisations featured in The Times Top 100

Graduate Employers rose by 7.9% in 2014, compared with recruitment in 2013, the largest annual rise in graduate recruitment for four years.

• Last-minute increases in employers’ recruitment targets and a sharp rise in the number of graduates turning down or reneging on job offers meant that more than 700 graduate positions were left unfilled last year.

• The UK’s leading employers plan to expand their graduate recruitment even further in 2015 with 8.1% more entry-level vacancies than last year, the third consecutive year that graduate vacancies have increased.

• This substantial increase in graduate vacancies for 2015 takes graduate recruitment beyond the pre-recession peak in the graduate job market in 2007 and means that there will be more opportunities for this summer’s university-leavers than at any time in the last decade.

• Employers in nine out of thirteen key industries and employment areas are expecting to take on more new graduates than in 2014.

• The largest growth in vacancies is expected at public sector organisations, accounting & professional services firms, banking & finance employers, retailers and the Armed Forces which together intend to recruit over 1,200 extra graduates in 2015.

• The largest recruiters of graduates in 2015 will be Teach First (2,060 vacancies), PwC (1,570 vacancies) and Deloitte (1,100 vacancies).

• Recruiters have confirmed that 31% of this year’s entry-level positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations, either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work.

19


Chapter 3

Graduate Starting Salaries

Starting Salaries for GraduatesThe second part of the research examines the starting salaries that top employers are planning to pay new graduates due to begin work in 2015, compared with salaries paid to graduate recruits who joined their organisations in 2014. The starting salaries quoted are generally the average national salaries that have been promoted by employers during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 recruitment rounds. The figures do not include additional benefits such as relocation allowances, regional weighting, subsidised company facilities or bonus schemes.

For six years running from 2005, graduate starting salaries rose each year. Annual increases were initially ‘cost-of-living increases of 2-3%, but more generous rises followed in 2009 and again in 2010 as the graduate job market improved (see Chart 3.1). The median starting salary remained unchanged at £29,000 from 2010 to 2013, but improved slightly in 2014 and is set for a further modest rise in 2015, taking the median salary to £30,000 for the first time.

Chart 3.1 How Employers’ Graduate Starting Salaries Changed from 2005 to 2015


2008 £25,500

2007 £24,500

2006 £23,800

2005 £23,100

Median starting salaries

£15,000 £20,000 £25,000 £30,000 £35,000

2009 £27,000

2010 £29,000

2011 £29,000

2015 £30,000

2012 £29,000

2013 £29,000

2014 £29,500


20

Graduate Starting Salaries in 2015Although the median starting salary for new graduates joining the UK’s leading employers has risen for the second year running, there continues to be a very wide disparity in the salaries available from individual organisations in 2015.

Three major employers are offering new graduates £20,000 or less, and yet at the very top of the market, four well-known investment banks are providing basic salaries of up to £50,000 this year and almost a third of graduate programmes at the leading employers now pay more than £35,000 (see Chart 3.3). Away from the City, the highest published salaries are again at Aldi, which pays graduates training to become area managers a first-year salary of £42,000, and the European Commission, where new graduates are paid a starting salary of £41,500.

By sector, the highest-paying UK graduate employers in 2015 are again the investment banks and law firms (see Chart 3.2). Following increases in starting salaries at several leading law firms and the ‘Big Four’ accounting & professional services firms over the last two years, the median salary for new graduates joining the legal sector has now risen by £2,000 since 2013 and by £1,000 for trainee accountants. The median starting salary available to new graduates is set to rise in a total of six sectors this year (see Table 3.3).

Despite the fact that graduates leaving English universities in 2015 are the first to have paid tuition fees of up to £9,000-a-year for their degrees, there is little evidence that this year’s graduate starting salaries have increased because of this – most employers that have stepped-up their graduate pay recently appear to have done so in order to compete with other employers, either in their sector or beyond.

Chart 3.2 Industries or Business Sectors with the highest Graduate Salaries in 2015

Median starting salaries

£15,000

Investment banking £45,000


£20,000 £30,000 £35,000 £45,000

Law £40,000

Consulting £31,500

Banking & finance £36,500

Accounting & professional services £30,000

IT & telecommunications £30,000

Armed Forces £30,300

Oil & energy £32,500

Media £30,000

£25,000 £40,000

21



£20,001-£25,000 18%

£25,001-£30,000 39%

Chart 3.3 Graduate Starting Salaries at leading UK Employers in 2015

£30,001-£35,000 9%

£20,000 or less 3%

£35,001-£40,000 16%


504020100 30

Table 3.4 Analysis of Graduate Salaries in 2015, by Industry or Business Sector



Armed Forces

Banking & finance

Consulting

Consumer goods


Investment banking


Law

Media

Oil & energy

Public sector

Retailing

ALL SECTORS


Median graduate

starting salary for 2015

£30,000

£30,300

£36,500

£31,500

£29,000

£27,500

£45,000

£30,000

£40,000

£30,000

£32,500

£20,000

£26,000

£30,000

% change in

median salary since 2014

p 1.7%

p 1.0%

p 9.0%

NO CHANGE

NO CHANGE

p 3.8%

NO CHANGE

p 2.4%

p 1.3%

NO CHANGE

NO CHANGE

q 9.1%

NO CHANGE

p 1.7%

Range of graduate

starting salaries on offer in 2015

£15,000-£42,500

£25,000-£30,300

£26,000-£50,000

£28,000-£45,000

£27,000-£32,000

£24,000-£31,000

£36,000-£50,000

£29,500-£34,700

£22,000-£40,500

£20,000-£45,000

£25,750-£40,000

£18,000-£41,500

£21,500-£42,000

£15,000-£50,000

Increase

(decrease) in median salary

£500

£300

£3,000

NO CHANGE

NO CHANGE

£1,000

NO CHANGE

£700

£500

NO CHANGE

NO CHANGE

(£2,000)

NO CHANGE

£500

£40,001-£45,000 11%

More than £45,000 4%

Median Salary - £30,000


22

Summary• Graduate starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers are expected

to increase for the second year running in 2015, reaching a median of £30,000 for the first time.

• More than a quarter of top graduate programmes will pay new recruits more than £35,000 when they start work and four organisations are offering salaries in excess of £45,000 to this year’s graduates.

• The most generous salaries in 2015 are those on offer from investment banks (median of £45,000), law firms (median of £40,000), banking & finance firms (median of £36,500) and oil & energy companies (median of £32,500).

• The highest published graduate starting salaries for 2105 are at Aldi (£42,000) and the European Commission (£41,500).

• There is little evidence that graduate starting salaries are rising in reaction to the introduction of higher university tuition fees – most employers that have opted to increase their graduate pay in either 2014 or 2015 appear to have done so in order to compete effectively with other employers recruiting graduates.

23


Recruiting Graduates through Work Experience ProgrammesDuring the last decade there has been a very noticeable change in the purpose and aims of work experience programmes. Ten years ago, the main reason that many major graduate employers offered university students work placements was simply to help individuals decide which career sector they were suited to and to enable students to experience the type of work that graduates did in a particular industry or business area. There were few direct links between these undergraduate work placements and the graduate recruitment process.

Today, for the majority of employers who offer paid work experience places, such schemes have become an integral part of recruiting new graduates. Students applying for work placements in their first or second year at university are selected through a very similar recruitment process to that used to recruit graduates. This means that once a placement has been successfully completed, recruiters are able to offer work experience students a graduate position, often a full year before students are due to leave university and several months ahead of employers who only recruit graduates during their final year of study. Many employers also consider that recruiting candidates who have proven their abilities during a work placement to be a more reliable way of employing graduates.

Up to a third of new graduates are now recruited directly through employers’ work experience programmes (see Table 2.7 on page 13) and employers in sectors such as law, oil & energy, and investment banking are expecting to recruit at least half their graduates this way in 2015. Correspondingly, the number of paid work experience placements available at Britain’s leading employers has increased very substantially over the last five years (see Chart 4.1).

Chapter 4

Internships & Work Placements

Chart 4.1 How Work Placements for University Students Changed from 2011 to 2015


2011 10.6%

2014 7.0%

2013 5.2%

2012 2.2%

2015 10.2%

Percentage change in work placements on the previous year

20100-5-10 5 15


24

Availability of Work Experience in 2015More than two-thirds of Britain’s top graduate employers are providing paid internships to penultimate year undergraduates during their summer vacations in 2015 (see Chart 4.2) and over half are hosting industrial placements – structured work experience that is organised as part of university degree courses (often described as ‘sandwich’ courses) and typically lasts between six and twelve months, giving students first-hand experience of technical, commercial or research roles. It is interesting to see that more than half of employers now offer work experience to first year students – either via paid internships and vacation placements, or through open days, short introductory courses or ‘taster’ experiences – a very noticeable increase on previous years.

Together, the leading employers featured in the research are offering over 13,000 paid internships and work experience placements this year (see Table 4.4). This is the highest level ever recorded and an increase of 10% on the work placements provided during 2014. The number of work experience places available to students and recent graduates has now jumped by more than 40% since 2010, double the rate that graduate vacancies have risen over the same period.

In 2015, the top employers are offering a median of 90 paid internships or work placements (see Chart 4.3) but fifteen organisations are providing more than 250 placements each. The leading investment banks have the most places available this year, with over 2,600 paid internships and work placements. It is striking that investment banking is one of just three sectors where the number of work experience places on offer from employers outstrips the number of permanent jobs available to graduates. Media companies, retailers and consulting firms have the lowest ratio of work placements to graduate jobs, making it harder for students interested in these areas to get relevant experience before they apply for graduate roles.

Chart 4.2 Type of Work Experience available at the UK’s Top Employers in 2015

Industrial placements as part of degree course, typically lasting 6-12 months 56%


35%Paid internships or work placements for recent graduates

Open days, introductory courses or taster experiences for first year undergraduates 39%

Paid internships or vacation placements for penultimate year undergraduates 69%

Pre-university placements for students during year-out 15%


1008040200 60

Paid internships or vacation placements for first year undergraduates 29%

25


Table 4.4 Analysis of Paid Work Experience in 2014, by Industry or Business Sector



Banking & finance

Consulting

Consumer goods


Investment banking


Law

Media

Oil & energy

Public sector

Retailing

ALL SECTORS


Total work experience

places available in 2014

1,844

1,260

174

360

1,067

2,555

650

755

128

385

1,788

359

11,837

% change in places between

2014 & 2015

p 8.7%

p 2.4%

q 8.0%

p 23.6%

p 51.8%

p 2.2%

q 12.3%

p 31.1%

p 15.6%

q 2.9%

p 17.6%

q 14.2%

p 10.2%

Total work experience

places available in 2015

2,005

1,290

160

445

1,620

2,610

570

990

148

374

2,102

308

13,049

Ratio of work experience places to graduate vacancies

in 2015

43:100

98:100

26:100

112:100

95:100

143:100

67:100

127:100

22:100

95:100

56:100

23:100

66:100

Chart 4.3 Paid Work Experience Places available at the UK’s Top Employers in 2015


51-100 work experience places 18%

250+ work experience places 15%




504020100 30


No formal work experience programmes during 2015 15%

Graduate recruiters at the organisations featured in the research were asked about the value of work experience when it comes to assessing students’ applications for graduate roles. Almost half stated that it was either ‘not very likely’ or ‘not at all likely’ that a graduate who’d had no previous work experience with any employers would be successful during their selection process and be made a job offer, irrespective of their academic achievements.

Median - 90 work experience places


26

Summary• Over four-fifths of the UK’s leading graduate employers are offering paid work

experience programmes for students and recent graduates during the 2014-2015 academic year – an unprecedented 13,049 places are available.

• Two-thirds of employers provide paid vacation internships for penultimate year students and over half offer industrial placements for undergraduates (typically lasting 6-12 months as part of a university degree course).

• Many more employers now also have work experience places for first year undergraduates – over a quarter of organisations offer paid internships and two-fifths of employers run introductory courses, open days and other taster experiences for first year students.

• Nearly half the recruiters who took part in the research repeated their warnings from previous years – that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.

27


Promoting Graduate ProgrammesThe final part of the research examines how the UK’s leading recruiters have approached the 2014-2015 graduate recruitment round – from the promotions they used to publicise their graduate opportunities, the universities they targeted during their campus recruitment campaigns, to the volume and quality of applications received so far for their 2015 graduate vacancies.

It is little surprise that the recession in 2008 and 2009 had a substantial impact on the resources subsequently available to graduate recruiters. The Graduate Market in 2010 report showed that recruitment budgets at almost half of the UK’s leading graduate employers had been cut compared with the previous recruitment season, and 18% of organisations described the decrease as ‘considerable’. Just thirteen employers increased their annual graduate recruitment budget that year (see Chart 5.1).

The outlook seemed more encouraging during the 2010-2011 recruitment season and a third of top employers spent more on attracting and recruiting graduates. But during both the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 graduate recruitment rounds, employers whose budgets had increased were outnumbered by the organisations where spending on recruitment had been cut year-on-year. In 2013-2014, more than a quarter of the leading employers increased their graduate recruitment spending and smaller numbers of organisations decreased their budgets, a pattern that has been repeated for the 2014-2015 graduate recruitment season.

Chapter 5

Graduate Recruitment in 2014-2015

Chart 5.1 Top Employers with increased annual Graduate Recruitment Budgets


2010 13%

2013 14%

2012 21%

2011 33%

2015 24%


504020100 30

2014 27%


28

Chart 5.2 Employers’ Graduate Recruitment Budgets for 2014-15


Budget has increased a little 20%

Budget is similar to last year 54%

Budget has decreased a little 19%


1008040200 60

Budget has increased considerably

Budget has decreased considerably 3%

4%

Graduate Recruitment Challenges in 2014-2015 With the number of graduate vacancies on offer from the UK’s leading employers rising for the third year running, it’s understandable that spending on graduate recruitment has increased at a number of organisations.

Half of graduate recruiters have a similar budget to last year but twenty-four employers have allocated more resources and budget to attract and recruit university-leavers in 2014-2015 (see Chart 5.2), with four employers – including a leading media company, one of the Armed Forces and a consulting firm – reporting that their spending had ‘increased considerably’. Graduate recruiters from over twenty organisations warned they have had less money to spend on recruitment this year – including three of the Big Four accounting & professional services firms, several engineering & industrial companies and two of the largest employers from the oil & energy sector.

Recruiters taking part in the research were asked about their main challenges and focuses during the current 2014-2015 graduate recruitment round (see Chart 5.3). More than two-thirds confirmed that one of their key priorities was to improve students’ perceptions of their organisations, half were keen to step up their profile on campus and three-fifths hoped to improve the quality of graduates they recruited. More than a third of recruiters feared heightened competition for graduates from other employers this year, whilst almost half warned they had insufficient resources in their graduate recruitment teams.

Three-fifths of employers said that they were working to achieve diversity targets for their graduate recruitment, such as the number of women or ethnic minority applicants, and nearly a third of recruiters now have social mobility targets, to recruit graduates from a wider range of backgrounds and circumstances.

Few employers wanted to increase the total number of graduate applications that they received but almost half of recruiters hoped to attract more applicants for specific job functions. There was also an increased emphasis on work experience at many organisations, with two-fifths looking to improve the quality of students recruited for internships or other work placements.

29


Chart 5.3 Challenges for Graduate Recruiters at the UK’s Top Employers in 2014-2015

Stepping up the organisation’s profile on campus 49%


23%Attracting more applications for work placements or internships

Attracting more applications for specific graduate vacancies 42%

Improving students’ perceptions of the organisation 68%

Insufficient support for graduate recruitment from rest of organisation 9%


1008040200 60

Attracting more applications for all graduate vacancies 18%

Reducing the number of applications for graduate vacancies 15%

43%Increasing the quality of students recruited for work placements

Increasing the quality of graduates recruited 59%

Achieving diversity targets (such as gender, ethnic background) 61%

Lack of students graduating from specific degrees 16%

35%Increased competition from other employers

Limited graduate recruitment marketing budget 30%

Achieving social mobility targets 29%

Not enough resources in the graduate recruitment team 45%

Insufficient support for graduate recruitment from senior management 5%

Reducing the number of applications for work placements or internships 7%


30

Graduate Recruitment Promotions in 2014-2015Employers have used a very wide variety of different promotions to publicise their graduate programmes during the 2014-2015 recruitment season (see Table 5.5).

Most organisations have promoted their opportunities through graduate recruitment websites (such as Milkround and Prospects) or have used commercial or university email services to contact individual students and over half of recruiters confirmed they had stepped-up use of social media this year. Although considerably fewer recruiters chose to advertise in printed local careers guides or specific sector guides this year, there has been a sharp rise in the number of employers using graduate directories to promote their graduate vacancies, compared with the 2013-2014 recruitment season.

On campus, virtually all the leading graduate recruiters are working with university careers services this year and there has been a noticeable increase in employers taking part in local recruitment events. Ninety individual organisations hosted their own recruitment presentations across the UK, with many opting to host more events than last year, and record numbers of employers have been using careers fairs and skills training events to publicise their graduate opportunities. Half of recruiters have also used some form of business game to promote their organisation and three-fifths have sponsored student societies this year.

Two thirds of employers now have their own network of campus brand managers – local students or postgraduates who are recruited to help publicise an employer’s university events, to remind fellow students about application deadlines, and assist recruiters with identifying potential local promotional opportunities. Over a quarter of employers confirmed they had made more use of campus brand managers this year. Up to half of recruiters have opted to host special one-off campus promotions around the UK – such as a roadshow event, campus vending machines and photo booths – and a quarter have held national or inter-university student competitions to engage with potential graduate recruits.

So far during the 2014-2015 recruitment season, many employers have had a significant increase in the attendance by students at their campus events (see Chart 5.4) – more than half

Chart 5.4 Number of Students taking part in Employers’ Campus Events in 2014-2015

Source - The Graduate Market in 2015Percentage of top graduate employers

504020100 30

A few less students than last year 9%

About the same number as last year 34%

A few more students than last year 30%

Considerably more students than last year 26%

Considerably fewer students than last year 1%

31


of organisations said that either a ‘few more’ or ‘considerably more’ students had taken part in their local presentations, skills training sessions or had met them at university careers fairs. A third of organisations thought the turnout from students had been similar to the previous recruitment season but ten organisations were disappointed to have seen fewer job hunters at their events this year.

It is striking to see that employers are now almost as likely to be targeting first or penultimate year students as final year undergraduates when promoting their graduate opportunities (see Table 5.5). Four-fifths of organisations have been holding events specifically for first year students during the 2014-2015 recruitment season – such as taster sessions, open days, skills events or introductory courses. A third of employers said they had done more with first year students than ever before and a quarter had worked harder to promote internships and work experience programmes to penultimate year students. More than three-fifths of employers began their graduate promotions even earlier, targeting schools and sixth form colleges.

Table 5.5 Analysis of Employers’ Graduate Recruitment Promotions in 2014-2015

Graduate Recruitment Promotion

Careers fairs

Advertising in graduate directories

University careers services

Promotions on graduate recruitment websites

Campus presentations

Promotions on social media

Email services

Skills training sessions

Drop-in sessions

Advertising in career sector guides

Campus brand managers

Sponsorship of student societies

Academic lectures

Business games

Advertising in student newspapers

Special one-off campus promotions

Advertising in local careers guides

National or inter-university competitions

Year Groups Targeted

Promotions to schools or sixth-form colleges

Promotions to first years

Promotions to penultimate years

Promotions to final years


Done more than last year

%

27

10

27

21

37

57

21

30

28

4

26

18

11

11

5

16

4

9

29

32

26

24

Done less than last year

%

23

10

10

20

15

2

13

10

11

15

6

5

4

5

12

7

20

2

1

4

4

9

About the same as last year

%

45

74

56

52

38

30

50

37

33

49

36

39

37

34

32

23

20

17

32

46

59

52

% of employers who used promotion

during 2014-2015

95

94

93

93

90

89

84

77

72

68

68

62

52

50

49

46

44

28

62

82

89

85


32

Chart 5.6 Number of Universities Targeted by Top Employers in 2014-2015

5 or fewer universities 9%

6-10 universities 8%



Not targeting universities


504020100 30




More than 30 universities 13%

Universities Targeted by Employers in 2014-2015 With more than 140 universities now offering undergraduate degree courses in the UK, employers have the widest-ever choice of higher education institutions from which to recruit graduates. Very few organisations, if any, have the resources to target all of these universities to promote their graduate opportunities, so most employers focus their recruitment publicity at a more limited number of institutions.

For the 2014-2015 recruitment season, the majority of top graduate employers have targeted between 10 and 25 universities each (see Chart 5.6), although thirteen employers are currently visiting more than thirty campuses annually for their graduate promotions. Within individual business sectors, accounting & professional services and law firms have actively publicised their graduate vacancies at the largest number of universities, whereas media employers and consulting firms took part in local promotions at the fewest universities (see Chart 5.7).

The five universities currently targeted by the largest number of leading graduate employers are Manchester, Nottingham, Warwick, Cambridge and Oxford (see Table 5.8). These institutions have attracted the largest number of top graduate recruiters for campus fairs, recruitment presentations or other local university promotions during 2014-2015.

It is interesting to compare this list with The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015, the latest league table of leading institutions compiled from a range of university data including entry standards, teaching performance, academic research, student funding and graduates’ career prospects. In it, Cambridge and Oxford are ranked in joint 1st place but Manchester and Nottingham, the two universities most-targeted by leading employers, fail to even make the top twenty. And conversely, St Andrews and Lancaster which are 3rd and 12th respectively in the guide, do not appear in the employers’ top twenty-five universities.

5%

Average - 19 universities

33


Chart 5.7 Universities Targeted by Top Employers in 2014-2015, by Sector or Industry

Average number of universities targeted by top graduate employers in sector

0

Accounting & professional services 33 universities


20 50

IT & telecommunications 20 universities

Law 27 universities

Investment banking 18 universities

Consulting 13 universities

Engineering & industrial 18 universities

Banking & finance 18 universities

Public sector 26 universities

Media 11 universities

Retail 13 universities

Oil & energy 13 universities

Consumer goods 15 universities

10 30 40

Table 5.8 Universities Targeted by the Largest Number of Top Employers in 2014-2015

Manchester Nottingham WarwickCambridge OxfordDurham Bristol London University College London Imperial College Leeds Bath London School of EconomicsBirmingham

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.

10. 11. 12. 13.

Ranking in ‘Good University Guide’ *

28228116

199417105

15

Edinburgh Loughborough SheffieldSouthamptonExeter Newcastle London King’s College

YorkCardiff StrathclydeGlasgow Leicester

14.15.16.17.18.19.20.21.22.23.24.25.

Source - The Graduate Market in 2015 * The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015

Ranking in ‘Good University Guide’ *

221321187

22291627392620


34

Graduate Applications Received in 2014-2015 A third of Britain’s top employers have seen an increase in the number of graduate applications they received in the early part of the 2014-2015 recruitment round, compared with the same period last year (see Chart 5.10).

Twelve organisations from several different industries and business sectors said that their graduate application levels had risen by more than 25%, a very significant year-on-year increase. A further twenty-three employers reported more modest increases. By contrast, eighteen employers have seen their graduate applications fall by more than 10% this year. These results equate to an average rise in graduate applications of 6%, compared with last year’s recruitment round. Applications rose by 9% in the early stages of the 2013-2014 recruitment season, by 7% in 2012-2013 and by a record 19% in 2011-2012.

Employers reporting the biggest increases in applications in 2014-2015 are at the investment banks, public sector employers, accounting & professional services firms and consumer goods companies, where graduate applications have increase by at least 10% compared with a year ago (see Chart 5.9).

Chart 5.9 Number of Applications to Employers in 2014-2015, by Sector or Industry

Average percentage change in graduate applications in 2014-2015, compared with 2013-2014

3020100

Investment banking Up 16%


-10-20

Down 9% Banking & finance

Public sector Up 15%

Accounting & professional services Up 13%

Consumer goods Up 10%

Consulting Up 9%

Media Up 9%

Retail Up 8%

Oil & energy Up 1%

Law Up 1%

Engineering & industrial NO CHANGE

IT & telecommunications NO CHANGE

35


Although more than half of employers felt that the quality of the graduate applications they had received was similar to the previous recruitment season, a quarter commented that the quality of applications had increased ‘a little’ and nine organisations thought that the standard of applicants had increased ‘considerably’ (see Chart 5.11). Twelve employers – including two of the ‘Big Four’ accounting & professional services firms and two leading law firms – warned that the quality of graduate applications they’d received was lower this year.

Chart 5.11 Quality of Graduate Applications Received by Employers in 2014-2015

Increased a little 23%

9%Decreased a little

Applications are similar to last year 56%

Increased considerably 9%

Decreased considerably 3%


Chart 5.10 Number of Graduate Applications Received by Employers in 2014-2015

Decreased by up to 10% 6%


Increased by up to 10% 10%

Increased by between 11% and 25% 13%

Increased by between 26% and 50% 6%

Applications are similar to last year 41%

Increased by more than 50% 6%

Decreased by more than 25% 8%

Decreased by between 11% and 25% 10%


604020100 30 50


604020100 30 50

Average - 6% increase in applications


36

Summary• A quarter of the country’s leading employers have increased their graduate

recruitment budgets for the 2014-2015 recruitment round.

• Employers have been actively marketing their 2015 graduate vacancies at an average of 19 UK universities, using a variety of local recruitment presentations, campus careers fairs, skills training events, promotions through university careers services, online advertising and social media.

• Graduate recruiters made more use of local careers fairs, recruitment presentations, skills training events, campus brand managers and social media, during this year’s recruitment campaigns – and did less advertising in local career guides and sector guides.

• The ten universities most-often targeted by Britain’s top graduate employers in 2014-2015 are Manchester, Nottingham, Warwick, Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Bristol, Imperial College London, University College London and Leeds.

• A third of employers said they had received more completed graduate job applications during the early part of the recruitment season than they had last year and a similar proportion believed the quality of applications had improved too.

• Together, the UK’s top employers have received 6% more graduate job applications so far, compared with the equivalent period in the 2013-2014 recruitment round.

37


APPENDIX

Media Coverage of the ResearchWhen The Graduate Market in 2015 was published on January 12th 2015, headlines from the report were widely reported in the media. Martin Birchall, Managing Director at High Fliers Research, was interviewed about the research on the BBC News Channel, Simon Mayo Drivetime on BBC Radio 2 and Channel Four News.

Channel 4 News, January 12th 2015

BBC News Channel, January 12th 2015

The new research was also featured in several national newspapers, including The Independent, The Times, Financial Times, the i, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Metro.


38

Page 22, January 12th 2015

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The Graduate Market in 2015 High Fliers Report

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